Building a new home in a rapidly growing area such as Lake Oconee, GA is the best way to get all the amenities you want in both a house and a community. Yet the most trusted custom home builders are often booked up months and even years in advance. If you’re eager to live in Lake Oconee, you’ll need to know how long you should expect the home-building process timeline to take.

How Long Does It Take to Build a House?

Construction in Georgia's Lake Country tends to follow the national average home building timeline – the U.S. Census collects data on new construction, and the figures for 2020 show that the majority of residential work built for owners was completed in 4 to 9 months. However, nearly a third of the structures took 13 months or more. Large and complex custom homes account for many of these buildings that took over a year to complete. Your builder should help you understand your timeline and what you can do to avoid delays when possible. 

The Home Building Timeline

The Home Building timeline, also know in construction as the schedule, is a complex and dynamic schedule as there are many predicates of one another. The building process is often referred to as having a domino effect. One phase is delayed; then causes a delay in another phase, and then another. It is important to prep each milestone in the timeline in anticipation of potential delays and navigate these delays in a way that keeps the building process moving forward. Here is a list of major milestones that can cause delays:

• Pre-construction: design and engineering, budget, selections, and prep for long-lead-times
• Site preparation like clearing, grading, and excavation for foundations and basements
• Securing pre-construction permits, community association approval, and installation of any septic or well systems needed
• Foundation work to create a slab, crawlspace, basement, or pier base for the home
• Framing and sheathing to create the skeleton of the structure, including roofing
• Installation of mechanical equipment and major home systems like electrical, heating, and cooling
• Exterior façade work such as the installation of siding or stucco
• Insulating and finishing the interiors with drywall, flooring, cabinets, countertops, fixtures, and other materials
• Final finishing work like painting, installation of trim, punch work, and a clean sweep out.
  
  

6 Ways to Stay on Time with Home Construction

1. Work with a member of the Lake Oconee Builder's Association and choose a reputable builder. Interview a few builders (not just one) and look for not just quality of work, but what is the builder's core values. The building process can be stressful, so it's important your builder has your best interest in mind and will bring your vision to life, not just their bottom line. 
2. Have you heard the expression, 'Measure twice, cut once"? It couldn't be more true in the building process, not just in the physical phase of construction, but in the planning and design phase. Look for a builder that has a thorough pre-construction and design phase, and does a full needs assessment during this phase. They should have a checklist of many features in a home, that you might not have thought of yet. It's their job to make sure all bases are covered before you start to go vertical. This will help you stay on budget and keep the building process moving. Changes during construction can cause a change in not just the budget, but also the timeline.  
3. Choose a builder’s lot already graded and prepared for the work. Site work is particularly prone to weather delays since wet, soggy, or frozen ground is unsafe to work on. Ask your builder for the lot that has already been prepped. 
4. Limit changes once construction starts to happen.  As the timeline processes forward (decreases) the cost for potential changes goes up (increases). Will changes happen? Sure, but your builder should have prepped you very well during the pre-construction phase to help protect your budget and timeline. There are occasions that changes will happen, but it's important to limit them when you can. 
5. Avoid trying to move in before all of the work is finished. Some builders offer arrangements where you can begin moving in early, but this can not only cause chaos but can often lead to poor quality or lingering punch-list items of months. The last 5% of the construction phase can be very busy and have many trade partners working simultaneously in their craft to finish the home, i.e. painters, cleaners, electricians, plumbers, etc. Trust your builder when they say they are not ready for you to move in yet. A quality builder will want to deliver a finished product and move you into a clean, finish home. 
6. Ask your potential builder how they will communicate with you during the pre-construction and construction process. You should select a builder that uses a software platform with a construction focus. Avoid a builder that only uses texts and emails as communication. This is a receipt for miscommunication between the field, the office staff, the design team, upper management, and you. These miscommunications can cause delays and potential additional costs. Your building team should not be one person you are texting. It takes a 'village' to bring your vision to life and construction-based software can keep communication streamlined. 
   
   

Building on Lake Oconee: A Background

Georgia custom home builders first began to develop the Lake Oconee area after the Wallace Dam was completed in 1979. This dam on the Oconee River cleared a large area of new land as the large reservoir lake settled. The area is full of golf courses and National Forest land, not to mention the lake that is owned by Georgia Power and therefore still undeveloped on its banks. It’s a high-demand area with many amenities and a relatively streamlined home building timeline.

Of course, you’ll get your home built faster by choosing the most reliable Georgia home builder you can find. Turn to us here at PAXIS Group for assistance with the entire process of building a new Lake Oconee home. We’re the custom home builders you can rely on. Contact us today for more information on starting your new dream home in the Eatonton, GA area.